Cities Need to Realize the Value of Emotional Design
WiredWhen was the last time you walked down a street with new buildings and felt anything positive? Today, there’s much more evidence to show that bad design can have a range of negative consequences, with studies showing that it can cause mental stress and even lead to crime and antisocial behavior. Whether you’re in downtown Hong Kong, Paris’s financial district, or central Toronto, the human touch has vanished from urban design while social isolation is growing and people are feeling increasingly overwhelmed and burnt out. Before, you could get away with thinking “less is more.” Now it’s becoming clear that emotion matters when designing buildings and urban spaces. Examples have already begun appearing—from Leeds, where Acme Studio infused personality and breathed new life to a derelict industrial site, to Burkina Faso, where Kéré Architects created a soulful health center in the city of Leo.
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